I was getting a lot of work done. I couldn't feel my paws or my head, there were so many repairs to do and then... this... Darkia.... But.... what does she care!

Because of her I was "reprimanded" for the first time by mother... like two kids who hate each other...

I'm going to make her pay for this insult! I make a mental note to put her on my list of things to punish...

I knew it... I could feel it... I was being spied on and most of all, I could feel her murderous aura, just waiting for a moment of weakness to fall on me... as if I had nothing else to do...

GRRRR.

I had restored the lower plateau at the edge of the lava lake, but all the other parts had collapsed, and the mountain was nothing but a pile of rocks and molten lava.

By going higher, I risked arriving in broad daylight.

And it was not worth it anymore. Everything was in pieces... All my lab, my memories, my things, the "kitchen" and my human apartments. There was absolutely nothing left...

GRRR.

Then I turned around violently.

"I KNOW YOU'RE THERE TO SPY ON ME.... IT'S NICE, ISN'T IT????? TO SEE THAT I HAVE NOTHING!!!"

The sphere in the dark opened its eyes.

Darkia: "You ungrateful runt.... who do you think you are?"

Rage and anger rose in me and, I had that in common with the comic book character Hulk from my childhood: Anger increased my strength tenfold but I still had the physical memory of crushing Enka... It had really hurt.

"Yes.. uh thanks for healing me...."

Darkia: "There is now nothing holding me back..."

"Are you deaf or what??? You heard me right mother!!! The mission first!! we'll settle the score later... I know you don't want to repeat the compression..."

I held back from insulting her.

I knew that she mastered space and dimensions to be here while I managed the gravitational forces. The mastery of time being forbidden to us...

"First of all... how did you end up here?"

Darkia: "I never talk to my prey..."

I knew her weaknesses and I used to preach the false to know the true. But I was wary. This creature was not only a dragon...I felt it, I knew it and my knowledge of medicine and neurology was not for nothing.

"We must put our differences aside..."

The dragoness didn't answer.., obviously annoyed..

"Darkia... I don't know but I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before... My memory is very powerful..."

"Who gave you permission to be on first-name terms with me? If you address me, it's "Your Majesty!"

I had a hard to hide grin on my face and the creature went crazy.

It opened its mouth, revealing rows and rows of teeth, but I had reacted by instinct too and it received a terrible blow to the jaw, which pulled it out of its black sphere and it went to smash against the wall opposite the lava lake.

I heard a squeak of pain.

I had impregnated my tail with gravitons and then I had forgotten "on purpose".

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She wanted to stand up but I increased the gravitational force on her leg, pinning her down.

She struggled like an eel and was about to turn around and bite.

"I know what you are... don't insist..."

our eyes locked.

"Your majesty (all smiles, full of teeth), you are a constant mind reader... but while your attention is focused on the head or soul of your "prey", you are vulnerable for a few milliseconds, the time it takes for the nerve impulses from your brain to your muscles...plus the time to decide, a few more milliseconds...

Then, I took out of my inventory a helmet... A helmet set with gems and precious stones...

"It is the summit of the strange draconic art...Each gem is a formidable weapon capable of pulverizing any powerful enemy. I reserve it for Tyrant but...if you stand in my way, I will not hesitate to use it..."

Darkia: "As if something like that would be enough...I know how to be intangible..."

"But right now, I see drops of blood beading from your mouth... if you bleed, you are mortal, in other words, you can die... should I use it?"

Darkia: "Gloat and enjoy your victory, but in a few hours you will know how to fear me and beg for mercy. Heaume or not..."

"I am interested in you... but that ends here! You must be a ghost or moon dragon using enhanced illusions...relishing the fear of its prey...but that doesn't work with me anymore.."

"Carnage, you want to test me???" The dragoness smiled and disappeared without a trace.

I used all sorts of spells: Astral Vision, Aetheric Vision, Illusion Dispersion, True Light, Darkness and Divination.

Nothing worked.

Then I tried a priest spell: destruction of the living dead... Then, some psychic spells... nothing to do...

The dragoness was taunting me and had promised to make me pay a hundredfold.

With all that, I had ruined my program of the day.

But something else was bothering me... the children.

As soon as I woke up on board the Bucephalus, I was lost but I tried to contact the children. And that was why I wanted to meet Enka... But because of that witch Darkia, all my plans were ruined.

I was angry with her. I had rage and, it was because mother forbade us to kill each other that... well..she still saved my life, that pest...

I shouldn't be so harsh... And I had to hit her pretty hard... She had hurt me, the other time with her claws but it was an illusion...she had never hurt me.

Aarghhh.... I was stupid again...my tantrums..

But why do I have regrets???

Meanwhile, on board the Bucéphalus, the dragoness was crying in pain... the adrenalin having subsided, the professor of zoology was applying anti-inflammatory drugs and big bags of ice to heal the bruised tissue.

Darka: "You brute!...You'll pay for this tonight...you'll enjoy it! Then she returned to the passage between the sphinxes and flew back to her former palace which had been reduced to rubble.

She collapsed in the pulverized room of what was before her den.

"Why is everything so hard? What did I do to deserve this... then the memory came back to her... A'Arnateth... the dreamers, their false accusations and the infamous Vizier and the passage between worlds... Then the Table... the powerful assassin's organization, the real one, the ancient and still current...

She chuckled with sadness, loneliness, the death of her human friends and only allies, the only ones who understood her...

She looked at her paws, half real, half imagination... "Even the pain of the slap hurts me here... I'm waiting for you. Mother or not... but this... you will pay for it..!"

Then she cried again... but about her real nature...

"Queen of junk..." The insult had never hurt so much...An insult yet full of truth, misunderstanding but just as sharp, frustrating and humiliating.

I know what I am...I am the queen of the dream world!!! The queen of nightmares!

Then, in his head, the black creature tried to remember Hans' weaknesses. But nothing was personal...Hans thought of humans, adored his mother without concessions, happy to be part of a family again. Happy to have children again but terribly sad about Kate's betrayal... It was a sword. And his worst nightmare involved the little ones...

"No.. not the kids... I can't involve her little ones.... "

It was as if a mechanism was blocking Darkia...On principle, she never touched children... Just scare them when they deserved it. "I'm a queen, not a bully like that jerk Hans... But why am I obsessed with that asshole...?"

Darkia then went into the darkness to join Enka and apologize to the mother goddess...

She made herself very small...

Enka : "I should take a magnifying glass to see you, my sweet..."

"Sorry, mother .... I don't know what came over me... but why do you want me to eat it?

Enka: "Think and ponder on these words...Hans is more subtle than you and he has already tested you, analyzed you and almost found all your weaknesses... What will you do later when you are confronted with your peers? You know what I want.."

Darkia climbed onto her mother's shoulder and showed her affection to the almighty hydra, the Destroyer.

Then, as if teleported, she found herself on the palm of the goddess' paw/hand. Her heads turned to look at the abyss, the center of the supermassive black hole.

Enka: "One day you will meet him..just like your brother...and that day could be any day. Only extraordinary and miraculous feats can attract his attention, otherwise it will really be the end, for you, as for him... But never let fear consume you...Never.."

Darkia licked her mother affectionately as she thanked her for the trials.

"Mother...I am afraid of Him..."

Enka: "That's my problem...not yours..."